Homeless man badly hurt in garage fire

-Police offer him ride hours before blaze.

-Police offer him ride hours before blaze.

February 04, 2009|DAVE STEPHENS Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Three hours before a homeless man was seriously hurt in a Tuesday fire, he was at Memorial Hospital's emergency room, trying to find a place to rest his intoxicated head. Shortly after 4 a.m., he would return via ambulance, with second- and third-degree burns to his arms and chest, injuries from a garage fire he may have started with a dropped cigarette. How he got from point A to point B and back to point A again is complicated. -At 1:55 a.m., police were called to Memorial Hospital because 44-year-old Jerry Brown, reported as heavily intoxicated, refused to leave. According to police reports, Brown wasn't belligerent. He wasn't causing a scene. He just didn't have any place else to go. South Bend police were called to the hospital and offered to give Brown a ride home. -About 2:30 a.m., Paula Landrum said, she awoke to pounding on her door at 1233 N. Diamond Ave., in the near northwest neighborhood near Portage Avenue. Opening her door, Landrum found Brown intoxicated, slurring his speech and asking to stay the night, she said. Landrum told him no. The mother of two, Landrum said she considered Brown a friend, and had let the man stay at her home, off and on, for a couple of years. But about six months ago, frustrated by what she said was his bad behavior, she kicked him out. She backed up her claim by asking her landlord to write him a no-trespassing letter. "We truly felt sorry for him," Landrum said, "but we can't help someone who refuses to help himself." So early Tuesday morning, Landrum said she was shocked to see Brown at her door and told him to leave. Before he left, however, the two shared a cigarette and she offered him his own. Then she shut the door and told him to keep moving on. She returned 10 minutes later and looked out the window to make sure he had truly left. "I looked out the window and couldn't see him, so I was glad," Landrum said. Just after 4 a.m., Landrum said, she heard pounding -- and Brown -- again. Brown, minus shoes and his two coats, appeared at the front door, yelling that the garage was on fire. His arms and chest, Landrum said, were severely burned. Landrum said she called 911 and tried to care for Brown, who said he had dropped his cigarette into a pile of hay inside the garage, where the family dog stayed. Landrum said she did not know why Brown was in her garage, but thought he had stopped to pet the dog, a chow/German shepherd mix named Poochie. Firefighters arrived to find a fully engulfed structure, according to Battalion Chief Nick Tekler's news release. The dog escaped unharmed. Crews were quickly able to control the fire, which destroyed the garage, and Brown was taken to Memorial with severe burns. By late Tuesday afternoon, Brown had been taken to Fort Wayne's St. Joseph Hospital's regional burn unit. A nursing supervisor there said he was listed in critical condition. How did this happen? Landrum, who rents the home, said she is grateful her house and family were not damaged by the fire. But she questions why police brought Brown to her home. "They should never bring anybody in that condition to somebody's home," Landrum said. "Not at 2:30 in the morning, not without calling and seeing if he was welcome." Despite Landrum's frustration, however, she admitted police had dropped Brown off in her neighborhood before -- apparently because he kept insisting he lived there. Landrum said Brown apparently used Landrum's Diamond Avenue address as his own, putting it on medical and legal records long after he had been kicked out. "But that doesn't mean they should drop him off at my doorstep and just leave," Landrum said. Capt. Phil Trent, South Bend police spokesman, said officers routinely offer people rides home, especially when few other options exist. Although police reports indicated Brown was intoxicated, Trent said he wasn't causing a scene or being abrasive with hospital staff. When police asked Brown if he had any place to go, he pointed them to the home on Diamond Street. "If we made an arrest every time we encountered a drunk person, we'd be making public intoxication arrests all the time," Trent said. Trent said it's common for police to offer intoxicated people rides -- whether it's a person walking home from a bar or a drunken person in the middle of a nonviolent domestic dispute. Trent said if Brown was unwanted at the home, police could have been contacted and removed him from the property. Except for taking him to jail, other options such as the homeless center, Trent said, weren't available to Brown because the shelters won't admit an intoxicated person. But Brown isn't completely unknown at the jail -- his arrest record dates back to at least 1994, when he was convicted of public intoxication, and includes three similar convictions since then. In 2003, Brown was arrested and convicted of felony burglary, his most serious crime, and spent two years in prison and several on probation. Last week, Landrum said, Brown appeared at her home, asking if he could do some laundry. Like several times before, he was sent away. And early Tuesday morning, like several times before, he came back.Staff writer Dave Stephens: dstephens@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6209